Death closes book on shootings

Investigators may never know motive in standoff with blind gunman.

Investigators may never know motive in standoff with blind gunman.

October 07, 2006|LOU MUMFORD Tribune Staff Writer

VANDALIA -- The victim of a shooting last month in Vandalia has died, leaving police without answers as to what precipitated the Sept. 7 incident. Capt. Lyndon Parrish of the Cass County Sheriff's Department said Penny Davis, 55, of Cassopolis, died at 12:47 a.m. Friday at Borgess Medical Center, Kalamazoo. Davis had been a patient at the hospital since she was wounded at the residence of Roy Coker, 80, of 60815 Marble St., Vandalia. A caregiver for Coker, she ran from Coker's house and was discovered lying in his front yard with multiple gunshot wounds about 11 a.m. Sept. 7. Police said Davis told them Coker had shot her, and other witnesses reported Coker was still inside. Officers reported they took Davis to a safe location and set up a perimeter around Coker's house, leading to several unsuccessful attempts to contact him via telephone and a loud speaker. After a roughly four-hour standoff, officers were able to determine through video surveillance that Coker had suffered what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the head. Police entered the residence and found him unconscious and bleeding. He was taken to Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital in Dowagiac, where he subsequently died. Coker was in need of assistance at his home because he used a wheelchair and was legally blind. Davis had worked as his caregiver for about five months, said her daughter, Denise Williams, who lives in Vandalia. Although friends and neighbors speculated during the standoff that a disagreement over money may have led to Coker's shooting of Davis, Williams said she had no knowledge of such problems. She said Friday she was unaware of any issues between her mother and Coker, monetary or otherwise. "None whatsoever, and I talked to my mom every day,'' she said. Asked about speculation that money triggered the dispute, Williams said her mother's only financial duty as it related to Coker involved mailing his checks to pay his bills. "Mom didn't manage his money,'' she said. But her mother told her about a week before the shootings, Williams said, that Coker had mentioned he might take his own life. Davis said she managed to talk him out of it, however. Parrish said the motive for the shootings will never be known because police were unable to obtain statements from either party.